By Lachlan Ellis<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Ballan Autumn Festival will feature a range of fictional superheroes, but our real life emergency services superheroes say anyone could be called on to save the day.<\/p>\n
Cardiac arrest can happen to anyone at any time, and members from the Ballan Ambulance Station have issued a call for the community to be ready to perform CPR if they know how, and use a defibrillator if one is available and necessary, come the day of the Festival.<\/p>\n
Team Manager Mark Duyker said it was vital that anyone undergoing cardiac arrest is provided with CPR as soon as possible, as an ambulance can\u2019t always be there to help immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen someone collapses, it\u2019s very rare that we\u2019ll be anywhere remotely close to that incident where they fall down. The general public are going to be first on-scene just about every single time. So they become the superheroes in that context,\u201d Mr Duyker told the Moorabool News.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuite often our ambulance service, even though we have an ambulance station in Ballan, we can be out in Melbourne, Ballarat, Daylesford, or anywhere. There\u2019s only one car on 24 hours a day.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we need our people in the community to look after their fellow community members, and be the superheroes when they\u2019re needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Around 19 Victorians a day suffer cardiac arrest, but only 1 in 10 survive. Every minute that CPR and defibrillation is delayed after entering cardiac arrest reduces chance of survival by 10 per cent, so it\u2019s vital that CPR and AED use begin as soon as possible while waiting for an ambulance.<\/p>\n
Mr Duyker said that if anyone in the community installs a publicly accessible AED and it gets used, Ambulance Victoria will pay for replacement of the equipment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a bit of an older community here in Ballan, and it\u2019s very rare you\u2019ll have to defibrillate a younger person. So I think it\u2019s an ideal place to put an AED, and we\u2019d love to see another one available. We\u2019ve been speaking with IGA, we\u2019re hoping they\u2019ll install one being sort of a central area on Inglis Street,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
A 24\/7 AED is currently available outside the Ballan Newsagency, while AEDs are also available at the Ballan Station, the Ballan Golf Club, the Ballan Bowling Club, and mecwacare during business hours.<\/p>\n
Registered Training Organisations that provide CPR training locally include Emergency First Aid Pty Ltd in Bacchus Marsh, and St John in Ballarat.<\/p>\n
For more information on cardiac arrest, head to www.heartfoundation.org.au\/Bundles\/Your-heart\/cardiac-arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Lachlan Ellis This year\u2019s Ballan Autumn Festival will feature a range of fictional superheroes, but our real life emergency services superheroes say anyone could be called on to save the day. Cardiac arrest can happen to anyone at any time, and members from the Ballan Ambulance Station have issued a call for the community […]<\/p>\n